All of California city under evacuation order amid deluge
Associated Press
Posted:
Updated:
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — The entire community of Montecito, California and surrounding canyons were ordered to evacuate Monday amid a deluge of rain that has flooded roads and swollen waterways.
The evacuation order affecting about 10,000 people came on the fifth anniversary of a mudslide that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes in the coastal enclave.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said the decision to evacuate came “based on the continuing high rate of rainfall with no indication that that is going to change before nightfall.”
Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor said at least 8 inches of rain had fallen in 12 hours, with several more inches expected. The canyon communities under evacuation orders are under hillsides burned bare in recent years by wildfires.
Upscale Montecito is squeezed between mountains and the Pacific coast and home to celebrities such as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Up the coast, evacuation orders were issued for about 32,000 people in Santa Cruz County because of swollen rivers and creeks.
Much of the state was being walloped by a major winter storm that inundated roads, toppled trees and knocked out power to tens of thousands.
This is an update. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Kathleen Ronayne
A tree collapsed and ripped up the sidewalk, damaging a home in Sacramento, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers" — storms that are long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific capable of dropping staggering amounts of rain and snow. (AP Photo/Kathleen Ronayne)
Kathleen Ronayne
A tree collapsed and ripped up the sidewalk, damaging a home in Sacramento, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Kathleen Ronayne)
Kathleen Ronayne
A tree collapsed and ripped up the sidewalk, damaging a home in Sacramento, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers" — storms that are long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific capable of dropping staggering amounts of rain and snow. (AP Photo/Kathleen Ronayne)
Sara Nevis
A crane lifts tree removal foreman Francisco Villanueva to assess which branches to remove first from two homes in midtown Sacramento, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Heavy winds from an overnight storm downed trees and power lines throughout the region. (Sara Nevis/The Sacramento Bee via AP)
Sara Nevis
A Sacramento resident crosses a street in front of a tree blocking the street in Sacramento, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (Sara Nevis/The Sacramento Bee via AP)
Sara Nevis
Crane operator Ricky Kapuschinsky gets ready to lift uprooted trees after a storm brought high winds overnight in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (Sara Nevis/The Sacramento Bee via AP)
